 /*******************************************************************************
  * Copyright (c) 2000, 2006 IBM Corporation and others.
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
  * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
  *
  * Contributors:
  * IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
  *******************************************************************************/
 package org.eclipse.ui;

 import org.eclipse.core.runtime.IAdaptable;

 /**
  * A factory for re-creating objects from a previously saved memento.
  * <p>
  * Clients should implement this interface and include the name of their class
  * in an extension to the platform extension point named
  * <code>"org.eclipse.ui.elementFactories"</code>.
  * For example, the plug-in's XML markup might contain:
  * <pre>
  * &LT;extension point="org.eclipse.ui.elementFactories"&GT;
  * &LT;factory id="com.example.myplugin.MyFactory" class="com.example.myplugin.MyFactory" /&GT;
  * &LT;/extension&GT;
  * </pre>
  * </p>
  *
  * @see IPersistableElement
  * @see IMemento
  * @see org.eclipse.ui.IWorkbench#getElementFactory
  */
 public interface IElementFactory {
     /**
      * Re-creates and returns an object from the state captured within the given
      * memento.
      * <p>
      * Under normal circumstances, the resulting object can be expected to be
      * persistable; that is,
      * <pre>
      * result.getAdapter(org.eclipse.ui.IPersistableElement.class)
      * </pre>
      * should not return <code>null</code>.
      * </p>
      *
      * @param memento a memento containing the state for the object
      * @return an object, or <code>null</code> if the element could not be created
      */
     public IAdaptable createElement(IMemento memento);
 }

